Scenario: 11 Bravo

Author: Al Sandrik

During Part 4 the battle for Michelbach turned into a raging fight. Some badly needed reinforcements arrived in the form of Cobra attack helicopters. Meanwhile my American forces blasted the Soviet attack from three sides. Just as I had identified the position of the Soviet HQ and started to bombard it with artillery the Soviets began to withdraw and the game’s rules kicked in ending the scenario despite the fact that there were still eight hours on the clock.

Turn 8, 09:50-Conclusion: Well my instincts with respect to the Soviet position were good and after a few more rounds flew the Soviet point units began pulling back and the following message was received in Comms (figure 25).

Figure 25

So now that the battle is over how did I do?  A review of the Tactical Operations Center (TOC, Figure 26) indicates my defense achieved a 73 percent rating for a “Decisive Success.”

Figure 26

As you could expect  the Soviet TOC results (Figure 27) were as lopsided as the American’s with the Soviets suffering a Decisive Loss and loosing  5 Recce, 18 Helo, 78 Tank, 98 APC, 65 Inf, 5 SP AT, 24 HQ, 12 AD and 11 SP Arty enemy subunits.

Figure 27

A finial look at the battlefield before the Soviet began to pull back to more defensive positions (Figure 28)

Figure 28

Conclusions: It is my hope that I was able to both illustrate both the rich detail in the game and the amount of planning that one can (should) conduct to (successfully) play the game. Like I said, FPC:RS is an easy game to get into but there is a wealth of detail to master. I have found the more thoroughly I plan and analyze the battlefield situation, just as my real world counterparts must, the greater my chances of victory (whether I play as NATO or the Soviets).  I would say I personally spend anywhere between one half hour to an hour analyzing the tactical situation and OB/OOB before I even begin to deploy my units. Personally, I enjoy that type of analysis and I hope you enjoy playing FPC:RS as much as I have enjoyed play testing it!

Good luck, Commander!

Al Sandrik